In Sickness and Death
by XanderLuvsAll
Summary: Evan and Paige get sick but only one of them survive and the one left has to deal with their grief and healing


It was to be expected that one day Evan would get ill, following around a doctor was not a good way to remain healthy after all. It was not expected that he would get ill while on vacation in Europe with Paige that it would happen. Or that it would be with the Black Death. Not that they knew what it was at first. Paige and Evan had just assumed it was a bad case of the flu and Evan had called Hank. As he always did when he was ill, he juts wanted his big brother to care for him. Hover over him as Hank always did whenever Evan was ill. His brother would make everything better. Hank came and took care of his little brother and his girlfriend until he noticed something was off. An hour after that the three of them were in quarantine as were all the ones they had come in contact with. Plague had come to for the first time in centuries.

Later it would be chased back to the tomb Evan and Page had accidentally discovered while they looked at some ruins. By some 'miracle' some strand of the plague had survived in the tomb, waiting to infect someone for centuries. Evan and Paige were the worst of the infected as the plague ravaged them severely and Hank was desperate to save his dying brother as the disease that had killed millions tried very hard to claim his little brother. As the days past and Evan got worse, Hank feared that he would be forced to watch his bother die. As would Paige, who was almost as bad.

As Evan was on the brink of death, Boris arrived with the best doctors in the world and by some miracle they managed to save Evan. Who while weak was then forced to watch Paige die, as while she had been less ill,she did have a less strength then Evan and was thus not able to hold on against the killer virus. Evan nearly went insane at her death and his actions nearly killed him as he overtaxed his weakened body. Hank was forced to keep his brother sedated for the remainder of their quarantine and for some time after. Evan did not 'wake' up until they were already in the Hampton's, at Shadow Pond. In the mansion not at Mrs Newberg at Boris orders. That way all the doctors he had brought could look after Evan at all times. Hank only allowed it as it was what was best for his brother and that Boris allowed Hank to be with his brother at all times.

So it was to Boris face that Evan woke up to weeks after Paige's death and all Evan could do was cry. Boris took his love into his arms and comfort as best he could while cursing the fact that no matter how rich he was he could not have prevented this. The fact that his pride had led to all of this made it so much worse. Boris had driven Evan into Page arms and thus into this new hell. How could he ever fix this? Get Evan well again, both physically and mentally.

"How could this have happened? What am I to do without her?...I know we were together for a few short months but we...I loved her...I wanted to spend my life with her."

Every word was like a knife digging into Boris, both from Evan's pain and the fact that upon learning that Evan was dying he had realized that he was deeply in love with Evan and wanted to spend the rest of his life with him. The words that Evan was speaking hurt him deeply but he pushed it all away to comfort the man he wanted...he would spend his life with.

"Evan, it does not matter how long you were with someone..sometimes you just ..know...Even if it takes a while to realize that, you can just look at a person and know that they are the one for you..Now you just have to know that you have to accept her death and move on..I..Hank and I will be there for you, Evan. Every step of the way."

"You have Marissa to worry about. So why don't you just go to her and leave me the HELL ALONE. As you know nothing about anything." Evan turned away from Boris and waited for him to leave. Which after a moment he did but not before parting words.

"When your done sulking, I will be back later."

The weeks that followed Evan waking up mostly consisted of Evan laying in bed. He refused to get up, refused to do any of the exercises that the legion of doctors told him to do to build up his body and lungs back up. He just couldn't find the will to do any of it. He even stopped eating until Hank threaten to put an Iv in. Evan only got up once and that was to see Paige's grave. The General had been kind to him, ironically it had taken Paige's death to get her father's acceptance of him. The two of them had stood beside her grace with Hank and Divya hovering behind them.

"I see now that you love her and...she loved you...You will always be welcome here, Evan...I thought to bury her with this but.. My wife thought you might want this back." He pressed something into Evan's hand, grasped it briefly then walked away. Evan knew what it was without even looking at it and fell to his knees sobbing as he held it so tightly it bit into his hand until his hand bleed. Hank rushed forward and rocked his brother while Divya called for the car while making sure the two of them were not disturbed.

"Evan...I need to know how to help you...Please, talk to me."

"Take me home."

That had been the last time Evan had left. He withdrew from the world so completely that he put blankest over the windows, ripped the phone line out of the wall and tossed the TV out. All he wanted was silence and that was what he got. Save for when Hank came in and tried to get him to come out unsuccessfully. Evan had kicked out all of his other doctors but he couldn't do the same with his brother. Still he refused to listen to Hank and it continued in that manner for weeks until he had so h weakened his body that he collapsed and Boris found him on his normal visiting rounds.

After that Evan was forced to have an Iv and a constant companion that was with him always whenever Hank or Boris could not be. Boris then forced him to leave his room by the simple action of having one of his 'bodyguards' lift him out and carry him outside onto the patio or wherever Boris was at any give time. A lot of the time Evan lay on the couch in Boris sturdy and listened to him do business. He was unhappy about it all but until he could actually walk more then a few feet without collapsing he was stuck. Espically as Hank was unwilling to help him as his brother was very angry with him about withdrawing from him and pushing his body to collapse.

Finally Evan had enough of this forced activity and came out of his catatonia by exploding.

"WHY CAN"T YOU LEAVE ME ALONE? ALL I WANT IS TO BE LEFT ALONE TO MY GRIEF...Why can't I just be left alone?"

"Because your alive, my heart. Your alive and its time you start living your life again. You need to start getting stronger again. Hank tells me that if you don't start building your strength again, your lungs again, you will never fully recover again...I know right now you don't care about any of it but one day you will be able to move past your grief and just be but for right now, I will force you to. And as Hank is helping me you don't exactly have anyone to turn to for help."

The rest of that 'visit' was spent sulking and pouting in silence and once he was in his bed again, Evan looked at the object the General had returned to him and he wished things had been different.

It would take another month before Evan was able to walk by himself and was thus able to escape from Shadow Pond but it would be two more before he was healed enough to care. It came on the year anniversary of the day Evan and Paige had left the Hampton's to go on their vacation. In two months time Paige would be dead for a year. Evan disappeared from Shadow Pond and a frantic search later, Boris was told Evan's location and rushed to the cemetery. Where he found Evan sitting at the grave instead of reproaching him Boris just sat down beside him and just waited.

"I planned it all perfectly...I waited until we were in Paris and I arranged everything to the T, I was so anal and attentive that I sickened myself...I asked her to marry me while standing on the Effel Tower...It was so cliche but so perfect for us. She said yes and I had never been happier..We were going to marry, spend the rest of our lives together, have children and...Now...Now I am alone and she is dead..How do I cope with that? How do I continue to live on without my fiance?.. I loved her so much, Boris ...How do I live?"

Boris was so shocked that all he could do was stare. Never had he suspected that their relationship had developed that deeply. He had been aware that they were in love and how that had hurt but he had never suspected that Evan had invisioned a life together with her, children...Evan had wanted to spend his life with Paige and now suffered over the loss of the one he wanted to marry and all because Boris had let his pride, his worries, his old fashioned fears and get in the way of how he felt for Evan. Boris knew after that revelation that even if he got Evan back, there would always be a part of Evan that belonged to Paige and that stung. Boris was a fiercely possessive man and with Evan even more so. So to know that someone else held a part of his love was completely unacceptable...And unchangeable. Paige was dead and thus always a goddess-like being. Completely untouchable in Evan's mind now.

"You..You remembered how much you love her and her you then you move on and began to live again."

For hours after that they spent in silence, one in his grief and the other in the futile need to comfort but unsure of how. Hank found them that way and scolded them both for it while shepherding them home. After that though Evan began to come out of the hole he had buried himself in since it happened. Perhaps it was finally admitting their engagement or perhaps it was facing the fact that she was dead. Whatever it was Evan began to heal of his emotional wounds and not just the physical.


End file.
